Monday, April 25, 2016

As reported here yesterday, Denver
District Attorney Mitchell R. Morrissey issued a 177-word press release
this morning confirming that “no criminal charges will be filed” against
Colorado prison guard and Iron Order Motorcycle Club member Derek
“Kong” Duran.

Duran indubitably carried an automatic
pistol into the Colorado Motorcycle Expo in Denver on January 30. The
Iron Order, many of whose members are peace officers, military policemen
and prison guards advises its members to carry pistols and conducts
role playing classes for members – the club calls the classes TRU
Training – about how to contrive confrontations with members of
traditional motorcycle clubs and civilians which may lead to gun play
and what to say to investigators afterward.

Over the last forty years, all
traditional motorcycle clubs have collaborated to create a sophisticated
code of intra-club and interclub behavior that unambiguously defines
the use of symbols of organizational identity (to borrow Wiliam
Dulaney’s phrase) and an evolved etiquette that allows clubs to avoid
confrontations with one another. This evolved etiquette – defining who
can be assumed to be whom, who can be where when, and when fights can be
avoided and when they cannot – has been the dominant characteristic of
outlaw motorcycle clubs since the 1980s. Anyone who knows anything about
outlaw bikers knows that club members are very private and that clubs
have very many rules. Outlaw motorcycle clubs are paramilitary
fraternities that value self-reliance, discipline and courage. They are
not, to use a common phrase, “mafias on wheels.”

Denver

The Iron Order has gone out its way to
parody and insult these club conventions and that, according to numerous
witnesses, is what led to the tragedy in Denver. Duran and other Iron
Order members went to the Expo wearing black and white insignia that
parodied the Mongols’. They did not avoid the Mongols but rather sought
them out. They didn’t just seek them out but went out of their way to
challenge them. Their actions were premeditated and strategic and were
intended to shove the Mongols into a psychological corner in which their
choices were either to be “punked” or to fight. The Mongols,
predictably, fought.

Duran, who appears in photographs to
have been intoxicated won his individual fight by pulling a gun and
shooting his opponent in the stomach. Iron Order members habitually
gloat about shooting members of other clubs by saying “He should have
brought more than his fists to a gun fight.” It is almost a club maxim.
After Duran seriously wounded a Mongol, he retreated to the high ground,
at the top of a set of stairs, and continued to brandish his pistol in a
threatening manner. Someone shot at him. The bullet grazed Duran and
more seriously wounded another Iron Order member. In the District
Attorney’s account, Mongol Victor Mendoza, whom Duran then killed, fired
the shot that grazed Duran. Other accounts say the shot that grazed
Duran and struck another Iron Order member was fired by an unknown
person.

The District Attorney’s account appears to be contradicted by photographic evidence.

Four people were shot in the encounter.
Two of them were struck by a single bullet fired, the District Attorney
alleges, by Mendoza. The other two were shot by Duran. Duran shot first.
By most accounts, Duran was the first person involved in the
altercation to use deadly force.

Murders

The incident at the Denver Expo was the third Iron Order homicide in 19 months.

In June 2014 during an apparently
contrived confrontation, Iron Order prospect Kristopher Stone shot Black
Piston Zachariah “Nas T” Tipton in the head after Tipton punched him in
the nose at a bike night at Nippers Beach Grille in Jacksonville Beach,
Florida.

Police immediately determined that Stone
had acted in self defense when he shot at Tipton four times as Tipton
was backing away from him because Stone, an Army Reserve medic, knew
that a blow to the head could be deadly. Stone had a slight fracture of
his nose which prosecutors interpreted as a threat of “imminent death or
great bodily harm.”

Stone was moved out of Florida by Iron
Order club officers including current club vice president Mike “Cgar”
Crouse. Crouse is an Army Lieutenant Colonel and former military
policemen. An Iron Order attorney and club officer named John C. “Shark”
Whitfield conferred with police after the murder. State Attorney Angela
Corey, who is a little famous for having indicted vigilante George
Zimmerman, stonewalled the public about the case until November 7 when
she officially announced that Stone had acted in self defense. The
statement she released was larded with gratuitous innuendo and, in some
cases – particularly summaries of witness statements, with outright
lies.

On June 19, 2015 a student at Alvernia
University in Reading, Pennsylvania named Tonya M. Focht was punched in
the face and either shoved or pratfalled under the wheels of a car
during a fight between her boyfriend, a former Pagan named Mark Groff,
and Iron Order Reading chapter sergeant at arms Wayne “Mo” Ritchie and
Iron Order Reading chapter member Timothy “Munch” Martin. Groff has
alleged that Focht was murdered. A month after she died Berks County
District Attorney John T. Adams ruled that Focht’s death had been an
accident and charged Groff with disorderly conduct.

Officially Speaking

The Denver District Attorney’s complete
statement on his decision not to charge Duran with anything – not
anything at all including disorderly conduct – reads in full:

“The investigation into the shooting at
the Denver Coliseum on January 30, 2016, in which one person was killed
and several others were injured, has concluded; no criminal charges will
be filed.

“The extensive investigation, which has
been ongoing since January 30th, confirmed that following a
confrontation, shots were fired by both Derek Duran and Victor Mendoza.
It was determined that Duran fired a shot first, injuring one person.
Within a minute or so of that shot, Mendoza fired at Duran, grazing
Duran’s torso and hitting another man behind Duran. Duran immediately
fired a shot at Mendoza, killing him.

“The lengthy investigation was complicated in part by the large
number of eyewitnesses and numerous 911 callers. In addition to the four
people hit by gunfire, there were also two additional assault victims
and a victim who had been stabbed during the incident.
“The case was presented for consideration of charges yesterday, and
the legal review concluded that there is no likelihood of a conviction
due to the self-defense claim of Mr. Duran.”